f course I wished to stay a little longer and learn more about the Yôkai of the temple, but I could not abuse the goodwill of my hosts of the Hieda household, whom I owed a roof over the head and a warm bed to, any longer. If I were to arrive at the estate much later, it would cause worry and earn me a scolding from Yôko again.

"I'm sorry, but I told my hosts I wouldn't be back home too late. I can't betray their expectations again," I responded, expressing my regret in being unable to remain in the company of these lovely Yôkai any longer. Kyôko's drooping ears seemed to droop even more, and I seemed to see a hint of disappointment in even Kogasa and Nue. "But I'll come again soon. After all, I still need to beat you in Shôgi once." The last part was obviously directed at Mamizô, who responded with a sneer. "Thou art a hundred years too early to beat me, kiddo. Maybe, with that change in thy makeup, thee may challenge me on when that time comes." I understood that the possibility existed, in this world where words like fantasy and reality did not hold opposite meanings.

I walked through the whole temple to find the various members to say my farewells and express my gratitude for having me over for the day, before I finally left to return to the Hieda estate. As I passed through the front gate, a young girl carrying a large peony lantern, and two steps after her a woman with long flowing open white hair approached. They bowed to me in passing, and a suddenly chill ran down my spine; the atmosphere they emanated triggered a familiar feeling, but I could not pinpoint it at that moment. The moment passed and they entered the temple, leaving me outside, alone and wondering.

"At least you didn't come that late," Yôko commented when I came through the front gate. Her standing before me the moment I returned caused me enough of a surprise to shirk back. Either she had been on her way out or had been waiting for me for a while; in either case, I was wondering just how much she had been worrying. "I assume you are hungry. I will make you something."

"No, thank you, I already ate at the temple. It was..." I paused for a moment as my mind went blank and my gaze turned into a distant one. Something subconsciously blocked my attempt at recalling part of the dinner, so I could not say with conviction how it had been. "... filling."

Yôko raised an eyebrow but decided not to inquire deeper into the matter, courtesy of my deadpan expression. She accompanied me to my room before excusing herself with her household duties. I went in and dropped onto my futon, suddenly feeling all the exhaustion that had built up during the events of the day washing over me in an uncontrollable wave. It was still early by my university-student standards, but my body felt too heavy for me to even sit back up. I decided that it would be better to go to sleep and wake up early to welcome the new day fresh and rested.

With these last thoughts, I practically blacked out.

I lay on the futon, my eyes suddenly wide open as I stared up at the wooden ceiling. My mind was perfectly awake. There was no recollection or even a hint of whether I had dreamed in my sleep or not, but I was well rested and my body was under my control again. I sat up to hear the songs of early birds and turned towards the paper sliding doors of my room, through which I could guess that once again I had woken up at dawn. Noticing that the clothes on my body were still the same as the ones from the previous day, I decided to take a bath before meeting anybody from the household. When I turned around to grab a change of clothes from my backpack, suddenly a pair of eerie green glowing eyes stared into mine from too close for comfort. At the sudden shock I jumped back, then sighed in relief when I realized who the eyes belonged to.

"Don't scare me like that, Koishi-chan," I commented and resumed my endeavor of finding a change of clothes. "Why are you here?" For some reason a question I was unable to grasp began to nag in the back of my head.

"Why, indeed? I wonder, why are we here?" She answered in a monotonous voice. "Sometimes I fear that there is no meaning to our existence at all and I get anxious. I lie in bed and can't fall asleep, when I think about it... But then I find something else to think about... Oh, what's this?" The Satori Yôkai spotted something in my backpack and, before I could react, had already picked out the flashlight I had brought along on a whim. I knew that in this kind of place, I would not be able to replace the batteries once they were used up.

"It's a flashlight. You can light dark places with it," I explained, as Koishi fumbled around with it, unsure of how to use it. "You press this button here and-" She sunk her teeth into the handle and accidentally hit the switch, causing the flashlight to shine directly into my eye. It was quite the strong one, since I had used it for disaster training during my school field trip. While I was temporarily blinded, Koishi took the device out of her mouth and observed the shining end directly.

Somebody entering at that moment would have found two people holding their eyes and crying out "my eyes!", defeated by modern technology. When I regained my eyesight shortly after, I saw Koishi reaching back with the hand holding the flashlight. Once again, before I could react, she flung it right at me. The metal-encased device missed my face by a hair's breadth and ripped through the paper sliding door behind me.

"That thing is dangerous!" She yelled and jumped up, still half-blinded, and ran right towards me hazardously. However, before she crashed into me, she spun around her own axis and somehow skillfully sidestepped me, seemingly losing control right after and spunning right into and through the already damaged sliding door. I could only bring a palm to my face at the devastation she wrought. She came to a stop somewhere in the middle of the formerly beautifully arranged Zen garden, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

I stepped out of my room onto the veranda to examine the damage the Satori Yôkai had done. "Koishi-chan, you should be more careful... How will I explain this to Yôko..."

"How, indeed," An intimidating voice came from my left, causing me to breathe in before closing my eye. I turned around to face the devil I had summoned by speaking of her. "Well..."

"Well?"

"..."

"..."

"I don't know," I said and attempted a charming smile.

I lowered myself into the hot bath water I had helped to heat up, with the wood I had helped to chop, and let my mind drift away. Once again I had the nagging feeling that there was something important eluding my mental grasp. But no matter how hard I tried to remember, it slipped away repeatedly, like attempting to grab a tiny piece of paper floating in the water, until it was gone completely. Only the knowledge that I had forgotten something remained.

"If it was something important, I'll be able to recall it eventually," I thought out loud and sighed, letting the heat of the water soak deep into my body. My arms stung from the impact of the wood-cleaver on the logs I had to chop in punishment. It had been work I had never done before in my life; I knew that coming to Gensôkyô would give me insight into many new things, but I had not expected to be doing something I had only seen in traditional bathhouses in the countryside, while I was on vacation.

Sitting in the hot water, I felt my stomach growling and remembered that I had chopped wood without breakfast. I would ask Yôko to fix me something right after my bath; or, in light of the recent events, ask her where the kitchen was so I could cook for myself. Thus, the feeling of having forgotten something slowly faded away in favor of more pressing concern over the course of my bath time.

Just when I stood up from the hot spring sized tub, I noticed something at the small window of the bathroom; a face, framed by light green hair, peeked in from the outside. The empty glowing green eyes were an infallible indicator of the voyeur's identity. I could only see the upper half of her face, but I stood there in all my naked glory, half turned in her direction. For a moment we looked at each other, then her eyes moved slightly, as if assessing me from head to toe. Eventually, she disappeared from the window, leaving me slightly disturbed and confused as to how to interpret the absence of any reaction on her end.

Sighing, I realized that I was gradually getting used to being seen naked by women or girls I had only known for a day, as well as to accepting their respective antics. I began to believe that I could make out a pattern in Koishi's erratic and random behavior, while I dried myself and got dressed. Outside the bathroom the girl in question sat, seemingly waiting for me, but most likely just busying herself with watching ants moving about. I wondered how she could have stayed focused on a single task for as long as I had needed to come out of the bathroom, but I did not question it openly in fear of being proven completely wrong.

"So, Koishi, why are you here?" I asked, instantly regretting my wording.

"Why, indeed? I wonder, why are we here?" She answered without looking up from whatever she was seeing on the ground. Piquing my curiosity, I motioned around her to see that she was observing a half-squashed earthworm writhing on the ground. It was fitting for the child-like Yôkai girl to concentrate on something so mundane for a long time. I accompanied her until the movements slowly died down and finally stopped for good. At that point she shot up and looked right at me with her empty eyes. I might have been deceiving myself, but I thought there was a hint of curiosity in the otherwise emotionless windows to her soul.

"That is death, right?" Her inquiry was as child-like as expected, but the issue was nonetheless a grave one, despite the fact that it had only been an earthworm.

"Yes, everything that lives will die like that one day," Was my somber answer, as I pat her on the head, with her hat still on. Koishi allowed it for a moment, then slipped away under my hand and spun around me, stopped at exactly ninety degrees to my left and for the first time seemed to show the hint of an expression on her face, as she asked a question that pierced my very soul.

I was walking along the engawa of the Hieda estate absent-mindedly until I almost ran into Yôko, who was carrying a tray of food. She looked up to my face and appeared shocked, alarmed at the expression I must have been making. "Kyôma, what happened?" She sounded concerned and I finally snapped out of it.

"No, it's nothing... Sorry to worry you," I responded and tried to smile, but I was sure that my expression was a far cry from a reassuring one. "Is that for Akyû-san?" I asked, trying to change the topic.

"This is for you, I knew you haven't eaten breakfast yet."

"Thank you, but I'm not-" I began but my stomach made a noise with comically perfect timing. Thus, I had to admit that I was hungry, even if I did not really want to eat anything at the moment. At least, to ensure the proper functionality of my body, I had to ingest the necessary nutrients. However, everything seemed so inconsequential compared to the question occupying my mind.

One that I was unable to recall.

Ultimately, I found that my new mental state was quite a simple one, as it appeared that having food could lift my spirits back to normal levels. Then again, maybe the question had not been that important, if I could just forget about it so easily. Thus, the next thing occupying my mind was how I would spend the day, considering I was practically a NEET here. I knew that I could not spend the day lazing around, especially since I was a freeloader that held no merits for the household I was burdening. At least I could help in housework, but knowing Yôko, she would not allow me to do anything - aside from when punishment for my reckless behavior was in order. I stole a glance at the woman in question, and noticed that she was observing me closely - and returned the gaze. Stunned for a moment, I was unable to react, but finally made my move.

"Is there something I can help out with? I don't feel good being a freeloader," I asked her directly, apparently taking her aback with the seriousness of my tone. The housekeeper thought for a moment while looking at me in a gauging manner, as if she wanted to read my capabilities. "I cannot have a guest working in the household, other than when something like earlier happens again," She finally said, sending me a sharp gaze in the process. "But I'm sure if you go down into the village you will be able to find something. Just know that we do not wish for any recompense for your stay; you are an honored guest."

"I thought so. Thank you," I responded with a smile. "Still, I cannot just sit around and watch other people do work. I'll see what I can find in the village. I'll be back before the evening." With this, I stood up and motioned to carry the food tray to the kitchen, but was stopped by Yôko, who reacted quickly enough and already held it firmly in her grasp.

"You're forgetting your place, Kyôma-dono," She stated with an expression of playful anger, and left the room before I did. I felt a smile forcing itself onto my face at her behavior; similar to the Myôren Temple, this household held a warmth different from yet similar to my home in the outside world. The ease I was at here, despite having only been to this world for a few days, let me rest assured at the prospects of the future, even if it was actually a very insecure one. For now, I would take a step to achieve at least some stability and establish my existence in this world.

I felt the need to revisit the Myôren Temple after all that had happened the previous day, and after telling Yôko of my plans for the day, I departed from the Hieda estate. It was still considerably early in the morning, but having learned about the temple residents' sleeping habits, I assumed that they had awoken even before I had, and were surely already actively at work. The streets of the village were bustling with people on their way to their varied workplaces, giving me a guilty feeling that I was neither in employment nor proactive about seeking it.

Within the crowd I spotted somebody whom I was convinced of was not human; she was a tall woman with long silver hair and blue highlights, wearing a strangely cubic hat ornamented with runes. She was approaching me, carrying a small stack of documents and books under her arm. Our eyes met, and I noticed that her gaze moved up to look at my hair, surely assessing me as something other than human, the same way I did about her. Yet, we passed by each other and neither of us decided to initiate a conversation.

A shadow passed by overhead and I looked up to see Shameimaru Aya, a pair of jet black wings sprouting from above her waist, flying past. A bag was hanging from her shoulder, most likely filled with newspapers. She appeared to be on her way to deliver them to subscribers within the human village, most likely heading in the direction I came from. Seeing a humanoid soar effortlessly through the skies, I was once again reminded that this was a world of fantasy turned reality, eliciting a smile to spread across my face. When a villager passing by me looked at me strangely, I was reminded of how stupid I must have been looking, with an eye closed and smiling to myself. I hurried onwards, slightly embarrassed.

I soon saw the front gate of the temple and found Ichirin sweeping the ground in front of it. I greeted her with a light bow and continued up the stairs to find the temple under construction. The builders who had run away the previous day when things had gotten dangerous were working on restoring the main hall to its former glory.

"Kagami-san, what a nice surprise," Byakuren, who was overseeing the activity, greeted me as she noticed my approach. "Those two children would not stop talking about you after you left." She turned in the direction of Kogasa and Nue, who were hiding behind a pillar, with varying grades of success; Kogasa's umbrella with the giant tongue was sticking out from one side, and some red and blue appendages, seemingly belonging to Nue, whose hair antenna was clearly visible, from the other. I scratched my head in confusion at those appendages, closed my eye for a second and looked again, to see that the unidentifiable Yôkai now no longer had them. The two mischievous girls noticed my glance and quickly disappeared towards the back of the temple.

"Just now... what were those red and blue... things on Nue?" I asked Byakuren, who smiled understandingly at my confusion. "I don't know why, but it felt like I've seen them before. Although I also think I haven't."

"That is her 'seed of non-identification', you can never be really sure about whether her appearance is her real self or just a transformation. Unlike with Mamizô, who I can usually identify in disguise, as long as she stays humanoid, Nue is impossible to see through," Byakuren explained, her expression resembling that of Buddha teaching a disciple the principles of the world. "Then again, I am not necessarily an authority on the area of transformations, that falls under the expertise of Bake-danuki."

"Thee called?" The Bake-danuki in question asked, as she came from the hallway the two traditional Yôkai had escaped towards moments earlier. "I only heard of my species, so I presume thou art talking about me."

"Yes, Kagami-san was wondering about Nue-chan and her 'seed of non-identification'," Byakuren stated. Mamizô did not instantly respond with an explanation, as I had expected her to do, but sighed with one eye closed, as if contemplating whether to tell me anything or not.

"I believe women need to have a few secrets. That's what makes us so interesting, won't you agree, Kyôma-dono?" She finally said with a mysterious smile, before leaving without waiting for my response. I looked at Byakuren and earned a similar expression, as she returned to supervising the construction work with a bow to me. As I looked in the direction she was going, I spotted Shô and Nazrin talking to each other with the giant hole in the wall as the backdrop, accentuating their silhouette against the bright outside. My eye changed focus and in the distance, among the gravestones of the cemetery behind the temple, I noticed a figure in a pale pink dress, with green hair swaying in the light breeze.

The beautiful and serene scenery seemed to blend out the noises of the ongoing construction work, as I watched Kyôko's figure disappear behind some larger headstones. Then I was reminded of what I actually came to do; I needed clarification in the case of my strange feeling that had occupied the other half of my mind since I had woken up in the morning. I walked through the hallway onto the veranda, entered the stone path and went towards the cemetery.

I remembered the path I had taken the previous day and soon found what I was looking for; the peony lantern at the set of new graves. Approaching it, I was not sure what exactly I was expecting to happen, until I suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice ahead, reciting something in an unknown language. Taking another cautious look at the graves, I passed them by and rounded a tree to find a girl with a strangely pale-bluish complexion sitting on the pedestal of a gravestone, leaning against it with complete disregard of respect for the dead. She was staring into nothingness from underneath the strip of paper featuring runic inscriptions, an ofuda, attached to her forehead, while mumbling at times and speaking clearly at others. I did not understand the language she employed, but I knew that it was Chinese.

The girl wore a blue cap over her faded dark gray hair, sported a red ornamented, short-sleeved Tang jacket with the characteristic frog buttons in the front. A dark blue, embellished long skirt with jagged strips of clothing wrapped around it covered her legs down to her knees. Her Kung Fu slippers added the last touch that clearly suggested that this person was from the continent, despite the fact that otherwise the whole of Gensôkyô I had seen so far was Japanese - with a few Western influences, mostly in the form of anachronistic appearing technology.

She did not notice my presence and continued to talk to herself, or nobody in particular, speaking in Chinese. I decided to listen and enjoy its melody for a while before I would initiate a conversation, so I stood next to the tree and analyzed the girl's behavior. She appeared absent-minded and without a care for the world, when suddenly a crow landed on her head, cawed and began to peck at her face. The girl did not seem to realize it at first, compelling me to help her out, but a tugging on my shirt stopped me. I turned around to find Kyôko looking up at me with a serious expression, as she shook her head.

Hearing panicked cawing from the crow, I spun my head back to the girl, just in time to see that she had taken hold of the bird. It struggled against her hands but was unable to free itself. Looking at it for a moment, the girl's expressionless face did not show her thoughts. Then she bit the crow's head off. Shocked, I stood there, watching as the girl proceeded to eat the rest of the bird, leaving only a few fallen feathers behind on the ground before her. Then, she went back to speaking to herself again, staring into nothingness, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. Kyôko pulled me away from the scene, as I looked at her dumbfounded.

"What... was that?" I asked, confused and disturbed. Of course, I was aware of the fact that Yôkai were violent beings that would eat humans, so seeing one eat an animal was nothing to feel uncomfortable about. However, we were on the Myôren Temple's cemetery and I had assumed that all Yôkai within the temple were either members or initiates, and abstained from eating meat.

"That was Miyako Yoshika, a Kyonshî that has been stalking the cemetery for a while now. It's better not to get too close to her, she'll attack you unconditionally, as long as you enter her range," Kyôko explained. "She's protecting the entrance to the Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum that lies underneath the temple."

"So she is not a member of the temple?"

"No, she's from the Taoist faction. I don't know too much about them. You'll have to ask Hijiri-sama, if you want to know more," Kyôko responded, turning to look behind her as if she feared that the Kyonshî may be following us. I tried to remember what a Kyonshî was, but it was part of a different culture and harder to recall than even obscure Yôkai of Japanese folklore. As far as I knew, they are called Jiang Shi in China, literally "stiff corpses", which are revived through Taoist spells and turned into mindless minions doing their masters' every bidding - as long as the seals remained attached to their foreheads. I assumed that a Taoist master was in that Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum and had ordered this Miyako Yoshika to guard the entrance to it.

"I guess you saved me there, thank you, Kyôko-chan," I finally said, as we left the cemetery behind us. The little Yamabiko stopped pulling me along and turned around with a serious expression. "You should be more careful, Kyôma-san," Kyôko seemed to be genuinely concerned, compelling me to extend a hand to pet her head. However, she dodged it and ran back into the rows of gravestones, leaving me behind in the breeze, my hand still outstretched.

"I guess thou have been dumped, Kyôma-dono," A familiar voice behind me stated in the accent I had grown accustomed to and come to like. "And thou have been acquainted with that Kyonshî, I assume. Is she not lovely?" The sarcasm in Mamizô's voice could not be missed, as the wooden clatter of her Geta slowly approached me. I was still staring in the direction Kyôko had disappeared to and contemplated everything that had happened in a quick review; I had been protected on several occasions, and stumbled into trouble time and time again.

"Mamizô, I think I really need to learn how to defend myself. I can't rely on other people all the time," I eventually remarked after a moment of silence. Turning around with what I hoped was a serious expression, I asked for the thing I had initially come to the Myôren Temple for. "Please bring me to the Hakurei Miko."